Report to Whittlesford Parish Council
Broadband
I spent a morning with Connecting Cambridgeshire in my role as Broadband Champion.
Connecting Cambridgeshire has been successful in its bid for £1.2 million from the European Regional Development Fund Regional Competitiveness Grant to deliver support for local businesses. This means a countywide support programme for small businesses will be delivered to assist with the adoption of broadband and broadband-enabled technologies.
In Whittlesford two green junction boxes have been wired up but the one on the High Street will be done in October, and the one at Heathfield that serves Ledo and Burma Road will be November. If a household is served by the "live" junction boxes then the next step for people who want faster broadband than they currently have is to test the broadband speed - the Connecting Cambridgeshire webpage tells you how to do this - and then shop around for an improvement by buying what is known as a fibre based package from an ISP provider. In some cases - if someone bought a deal from a provider some years ago - it may be cheaper, or it may be a few pounds more a month.
Although BT have been putting in the infrastructure, it doesn't mean that you have to go with BT to get the better performance. I was really pleased to see how the team had responded to feedback and added to their Q&A on the website in response to queries - some of them from people round here - which I passed on.
Transport strategy
Transport Strategy for Cambridge and South Cambridgeshire - Consultation is currently underway on the draft Transport Strategy for Cambridge and South Cambridgeshire. This is being run alongside the consultations on Cambridge City Council and South Cambridgeshire District Council’s draft Local Plans. The consultation period closes on the 30 September. The intention is for the Strategy to be adopted in early 2014 to support the submission of the draft Local Plans to the Planning Inspectorate.
Transport issues locally and highways improvement bid
I met with Mike Cooper in early August and it is clear that the village is getting a good service from the Highways team. We went through the various concerns that the PC has raised re local roads. In terms of the bid, I am ready to offer advice and support in advance of the panel meetings and on the day itself if the parish would find that helpful.
31 bus route - Next meeting is due to take place later in Sept. I will report back but currently there does not appear to be any plan to reduce the service - and it is still intended for it to end up at
A ddenbrookes.
District plan and housing
The lack of a five year land supply continues to cause problems for district councils across the country, and in South Cambs this is also the case, as per the recent application at Waterbeach and also at Melbourne where the developers are confident they can win on appeal even though the district planning committee rejected. It follows that the village needs to keep close to any possible developments for putting forward land as even though the land may be not part of the district council's plan, the bid could still succeed. The Local Plan being developed by the Parish Council is important here as it will be taken into account in deciding any major development applications.
Planning.
I chased up South Cambs re the Tickell Arms restrospective planning application. The application has been refused and the planners are now in discussion with the Tickell. The enforcement officer, Charlie Swain, has been asked to visit.
I spoke to South Cambs chief planning officer re the meeting re the scrapyard at Station Road. He is waiting for the CD of reports and information that residents were to send him. He has asked the environment team to make contact to begin monitoring work as agreed at the meeting.
Solar farm at Thriplow - planning application.
11. There will be a public meeting at Thriplow on this and I will attend and report back if any impact for Whittlesford. The scheme seems less intrusive that the previous submission - principally in terms of preserving views. But local opposition from people who rely on that area for their access to the countryside.
and finally . . .
I am now vice-chairman of the Audit Committee at the County Council, and have been asked to represent the county on the Local Access Forum which has the job of improving access to public land and making sure developments include good access to the countryside.
Some villages such are doing interesting work in terms of local village wardens and I would like to do some research and have this on the agenda for October for discussion.
Peter Topping Sept 2014
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